This dissertation brings a new philosophical perspective to an important topic in the contemporary theology and science dialogue, specifically the theological reception of multiverse thought in modern cosmology. In light of recent cosmological speculation about the plausibility of a 'multiverse,' a cosmic ensemble in which our own universe is just one of many, theological responses have largely focused on the question of whether such a multiverse might be an alternative to divine design (or might itself be compatible with divine design). However, this approach neglects the fundamental metaphysical issues entailed in the multiverse proposal, including its entanglement of the one and the many (a paradox which has itself been a central concern of theological reflection), as well as its intimations of cosmic multiplicity, diversity, and infinity. In this dissertation I provide the first systematic theological engagement with these metaphysical implications. My approach is to draw on ancient and medieval resources (neglected not only in multiverse discussions but also in the theology and science field more generally) to show that the concept of metaphysical participation provides a particularly fertile ground on which theology can engage constructively with multiverse thought. To that end, I focus specifically on the participatory thought of Plato, Aquinas, and Nicholas of Cusa, each of whom seek to understand how a physical cosmos of complexity and immensity might share in divine existence of unity and simplicity. I bring their insights into interaction with a diverse range of contemporary theological, philosophical, and scientific figures to demonstrate that a participatory account of the relationship between God and creation argues for greater continuity between theology and the multiverse proposal in modern cosmology.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:12:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JoseTN_TESE.pdf: 2213604 bytes, checksum: cf37c1420d6ee578c21d46c5a3bb9a38 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-04-23 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / We indicate the idea of nexus or conexio, thought of as intelligible connection with the intelligent, the foundation on which the reason why you can understand and name, even if inadequately, what the intellect sees incomprehensible and unnameably. Thus, it opens a way for our research: we will take the idea of nexus as fundamental to the interpretation of the divine names and the "metaphysics of the unnameably" and we show how the divine names, mainly in possest, mirrored in the Trinity, relatedness of the principle and therefore also the nexus. For that you need to think some preliminary questions: we will place Nicholas of Cusa in the tradition of medieval Christian Neoplatonism, we resume some discussions on the problem of naming and the philosophy of language in his thinking, we will reflect such thinking is molded from active dialogue with the tradition and how it is your speculation is founded upon the dynamic and dialectical relationship between philosophy and theology to be thought of in our text using the relationship between faith and understandig (intellectus). After introductory clarify these issues we will come to consider introductory understanding of the Trinitarian Beginning and speculation about the nexus taking as its starting point from where the De venatione sapientiae nexus or conexio is designed as a hunting field of wisdom and the First Book of De docta ignorantia where the maximum is now thought of as one and triune. From the Second Book of the same work and the Idiota. De mente we will show in what sense the universe and men, as imago dei, imitate the eternal Trinity. Finally, we will resume the notion of the scientia aenigmatica of De beryllo and some information that will clarify that Nicholas assumes the divine names as enigmas. Finally, we will try to show that the enigmatic or symbolic names also mirror the triune Beginning principle. So, before we return some traces of this aspect in some divine names and texts of the "late period" and then conclude with that which in itself already indicates the nexus and therefore the trinity: possest / Indicamos com a ideia de nexus ou conexio, pensada como conex?o do intelig?vel com o inteligente na especula??o de Nicolau de Cusa, o fundamento no qual a raz?o pode compreender e nomear, mesmo que inadequadamente, o que o intelecto v? incompreens?vel e inomin?vel. Assim, abre-se um caminho para a nossa investiga??o: tomaremos a ideia de nexus como fundamental para a interpreta??o dos nomes divinos e para a metaf?sica do inomin?vel e mostraremos como nos nomes divinos, principalmente no possest, espelha-se a Trindade, a relacionalidade do princ?pio e, portanto, tamb?m o nexus. Para tanto, ser? necess?rio pensarmos algumas quest?es pr?vias: situaremos Nicolau de Cusa na tradi??o medieval do neoplatonismo crist?o; retomaremos algumas discuss?es sobre o problema da nomea??o e da filosofia da linguagem no seu pensamento; refletiremos como esse pensamento se molda a partir do di?logo ativo com a tradi??o e como a sua especula??o se constitui a partir da rela??o dial?tica e din?mica entre filosofia e teologia, que ser? pensada em nosso texto por meio da rela??o entre f? e conhecimento intelectual (intellectus). Ap?s esclarecermos essas quest?es introdut?rias, passaremos a considerar a compreens?o trinit?ria do princ?pio fundante e a especula??o sobre o nexus, tomando como ponto de partida o De venatione sapientiae, em que o nexus ou conexio ? pensado como um campo de ca?a da sabedoria e o Primeiro Livro do De docta ignorantia, no qual o M?ximo ? j? pensado como uno e trino. A partir do Segundo Livro dessa mesma obra e do Idiota. De mente mostraremos em que sentido o universo e a mens, enquanto imago dei, imitam a Trindade eterna. Por ?ltimo, retomaremos a no??o de scientia aenigmatica do De beryllo e algumas indica??es para esclarecer que Nicolau de Cusa assume os nomes divinos como enigmas. Finalmente, tentaremos mostrar que os nomes enigm?ticos tamb?m espelhar?o o princ?pio unitrino. Assim, retomaremos previamente alguns tra?os desse aspecto em alguns nomes divinos e em textos do per?odo tardio para depois concluirmos com aquele que em si mesmo j? indica o nexus e, portanto, a Trindade: possest

This thesis deals with the anthropological thinking of Nicholas of Cusa. The first part presents the fundamental metaphysical motifs that are the basis for this anthropology - above all, it concerns the conception of human as a mind (intellect). This conception is linked with the thinking of the first Principle (God) as the unity that is identical with itself. This unity/oneness of the One descends into the world through number that is one and multiple at the same time (all higher numbers consist of ones). The emphasis on unity of the One and on number as a mean of the creation is the reason, why Cusa's main concern, regarding the understanding of the world, aren't individual substances, but the relations between these substances. And for this kind of metaphysical thinking it is really important to develop also a strong notion of human intellect (mind), but the first philosophical texts to some extent fail to do so. The second part of this thesis deals with the proper anthropology that is developed in the dialogues with the idiota. It is shown what is the role of human mind in the dynamics of descent and ascent of unity of the One - it is the human mind and its intellectual return to its Beginning through which is all creation being made one and being brought to its true nature that is the One. The last...

This thesis deals with the anthropological thinking of Nicholas of Cusa. The first part presents the fundamental metaphysical motifs that are the basis for this anthropology - above all, it concerns the conception of human as a mind (intellect). This conception is linked with the thinking of the first Principle (God) as the unity that is identical with itself. This unity/oneness of the One descends into the world through number that is one and multiple at the same time (all higher numbers consist of ones). The emphasis on unity of the One and on number as a mean of the creation is the reason, why Cusa's main concern, regarding the understanding of the world, aren't individual substances, but the relations between these substances. And for this kind of metaphysical thinking it is really important to develop also a strong notion of human intellect (mind), but the first philosophical texts to some extent fail to do so. The second part of this thesis deals with the proper anthropology that is developed in the dialogues with the idiota. It is shown what is the role of human mind in the dynamics of descent and ascent of unity of the One - it is the human mind and its intellectual return to its Beginning through which is all creation being made one and being brought to its true nature that is the One. The last...

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T19:20:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sonia Regina Lyra.pdf: 1194972 bytes, checksum: cd5d999e915355075a87996fe9f6f5ae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-09-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / God is the target and the quest of Nicholas of Cusa s theory of knowledge. Disjunction and conjunction constitute the wall of coincidence of opposites beyond which God exists, unlinked of everything that can be said or thought. The daring characteristic of the Cusan proposal is in putting forward the enigma, highly speculative, of seeing the invisible through the created visible things, which is sought in an invisible way especially in his works De Docta Ignorantia (Of Learned Ignorance) and De visione Dei (On the Vision of God). The non-other one of the most accurate names according to Nicholas of Cusa to denominate the unnamable had already been predicted by Dionysius the Areopagite at the end of his De Mystica Theologia (Mystical Theology). Every concept, every definition is, therefore, conjectural about the first principle. Defining is setting limits and, above all, knowing, even though the definition itself cannot be determined by anything due to its anteriority. Once it is the definition that allows the excellence of knowledge, setting limits and determinations, the search for learned ignorance, which accompanies the path of theory, goes on circumscribing knowledge and leaving aside everything that it is not, following a negative theology. Considered as self-defining of itself in its ontological principle, the definition differentiates itself as a statement of reason and as a gnosiological principle. It is then that the discourse allows imposing a conceptual limit in relation to the thing and to what it is not. Being the first principle, intellectual principle, it is not possible to have as an object of thought anything other than itself and, with this, it is the sole principle of being and of knowing - principium essendi et cognoscendi. The mystical dimension of this theory of knowledge can be seen in De visione Dei (On the Vision of God), where Cusa prepares and indicates the path to be traveled from the sensitive point to the transumptive jump beyond the wall of coincidence of opposites. Understood as imago Dei, man has in parallel with the divine mind the humana mens, even though this notion implies in showing the inadequacy of the image in relation to its specimen / Deus é o alvo e a busca da teoria do conhecimento proposta por Nicolau de Cusa. A disjunção e a conjunção constituem o muro da coincidência dos opostos, para além do qual Deus existe desvinculado de tudo aquilo que pode ser dito ou pensado. A ousadia da proposta cusana está em propor o enigma fortemente especulativo, que é ver o invisível, através das coisas criadas visíveis, o qual é buscado de modo invisível especialmente em suas obras De docta ignorantia e A visão de Deus. O não-outro, um dos nomes mais precisos segundo Nicolau de Cusa para denominar o inominável, já tinha sido prenunciado por Dionísio Areopagita no final da sua De mystica theologia. Todo conceito, toda definição é, pois, conjectural em torno do primeiro princípio. Definir é dar limites e acima de tudo, conhecer ainda que a própria definição não possa ser definida por coisa alguma em virtude de sua anterioridade. Uma vez que é a definição que permite a excelência do conhecimento, dando limites e determinações, a busca da douta ignorância que acompanha a tragetória da teoria vai circunscrevendo o conhecimento e deixando de fora tudo aquilo que ele não é, seguindo por uma teologia negativa. Considerada como autodefinidora de si mesma em seu princípio ontológico a definição se diferencia dela mesma enquanto enunciado da razão e como princípio gnoseologico. É então que o discurso permite impor um limite conceitual à respeito da coisa e daquilo que ela não é. Sendo o primeiro princípio, princípio intelectual, não pode ter como objeto do pensamento, outro que não a si mesmo, e, com isso, é princípio único do ser e do conhecer principium essendi et cognoscendi. A dimensão mística dessa teoria do conhecimento pode ser vista no A visão de Deus onde o Cusano prepara e indica a trajetória a ser percorrida desde o sensível até o salto transsumptivo para além do muro da coincidência dos opostos. Entendido como imago Dei o homem tem em paralelo com a mente divina a humana mens ainda que essa noção implique em apontar para a insuficiência da imagem com relação ao seu exemplar

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:12:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 OsvaldoFAF_DISSERT.pdf: 585143 bytes, checksum: 436ac6c5f30018a45e6dfb3634cd8fae (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-23 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / This work deals with the way how the three themes of traditional metaphysics, namely, God, man, and the world, are rethought through the philosophical speculation of German cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464). Due to the comprehensiveness of this subject, our dissertation had as a starting point and constant reference the book that the philosopher wrote in 1450, Idiota. De mente, the second written work that makes up the series of the Idiota (Idiotae libri), whose discussion is developed around the theme of the human mind. From the dialogue of the mind we have built our reflection on some issues and theoretical foundations presented in Idiota. De sapientia and De docta ignorantia, extending it to little more than that. According to Nicholas of Cusa, the human mind, in its creative character in the image of the divine mind, transcends the purely functional considerations commonly assigned to it, that is, those that regard its cognitive nature and epistemological role. In addition to these aspects, Cusanus understands the humana mens as a point of articulation of two other main themes of his metaphysics: God and the world. In this context, through the concepts of complicatioexplicatio and imago, as well as with the intercession between the themes of man as imago Dei and the reason of the microcosm, we present here an introduction to Cusan metaphysics / O presente trabalho versa sobre como os tr?s temas centrais da metaf?sica tradicional, a saber, Deus, o homem e o mundo, s?o repensados pela especula??o filos?fica do cardeal alem?o Nicolau de Cusa (1401-1464). Devido ? abrang?ncia dessa tem?tica, nossa disserta??o teve como ponto de partida e referencial constante o livro que o fil?sofo escreveu em 1450, Idiota. De mente, segundo escrito que comp?e a s?rie de di?logos do Idiota (Idiotae libri), e cuja discuss?o se desenvolve em torno ao tema da mente humana. A partir do di?logo De mente n?s constru?mos a nossa reflex?o tomando algumas quest?es e fundamenta??es te?ricas apresentadas no Idiota. De sapientia e no De docta ignorantia, estendendo-a a pouco mais que isso. De acordo com Nicolau de Cusa, a mente humana, em seu car?ter criativo ? imagem da mente divina, transcende as considera??es puramente funcionais que geralmente lhe s?o atribu?das, isto ?, no que se refere ? sua natureza cognitiva e ao seu papel epistemol?gico. Para al?m desses aspectos, o Cusano entende a humana mens como um ponto de articula??o dos outros dois temas que protagonizam a sua metaf?sica: Deus e o mundo. Neste contexto, atrav?s dos conceitos de complicatio-explicatio e imago, bem como da intercess?o entre o tema do homem imago Dei e o motivo do microcosmo, n?s apresentamos aqui uma introdu??o ? filosofia cusana

Selected aspects of Nicholas of Cusa's cosmology and anthropology This thesis targets selected topics of theology of creation and of man, that is, theological cosmology and anthropology in the work of a Renaissance philosopher, theologian, mathematician and scientist Nicholas of Cusa. I shall first introduce Cusanus' curriculum vitae, it's historical context and basic characteristics of theological anthropology in the work of Cusanus. After this, I shall present in greater detail selected topics of his mathematical theology, including historical context of this specific discourse on God, world and man using language of mathematics. This includes mathematical description of both created world and of theological reality, e.g. God's transcendence and immanence, the place of man in the universe, or the role of universe which has a mediating role between God and man in the works of Cusanus. Mathematical language used by Cusanus is part of a wide stream of Neoplatonist philosophical and theological tradition. Cusanus is inspired not only by pre-Christian philosophical traditions (Pythagorean school, Plotinus' concept of One), but also by Greek patristic writers like Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. In his concept of "great conjecture" Cusanus presents a model of...

This dissertation examines the reconfiguration of the limits of representation in reference to the intermediary function of angels. The Modernist engagement with the figure of the angel entailed, primarily, a reconsideration of the problem of representation as well as an attempt to trace the contours of a poetics that plays itself outside the mimetic understanding of representation. My contention is that this transformation of literary referentiality was not simply a disengagement of art from reality but, rather, from the truthfalsity, reality-fiction, subject-object dichotomies. The angel, defined as the figure of passage par excellence, but also as the agency that induces the transformation of the visible in the invisible and vice versa, appears both as a model/archetype and as a guide towards the illumination of this intermediary aesthetic. Working with the joined perspectives from angelology, contemporary phenomenology, and poetics, this dissertation is an extended overview of the notion of intermediary spaces, as well as an attempt to probe the relevance of this concept for the field of literary studies. In the first case, this dissertation offers a theoretical background to the concept of intermediality, seen in its theological, phenomenological, aesthetic and ethical significances. In the second case, it presents the reader with a heuristic apparatus for approaching this problematic in the field of literary interpretation and provides examples of ways in which such an analysis can become relevant. The primary texts discussed here are all examples of attempts to redefine the notion of representation away from the truth-falsity or subject-object oppositions, as well as to create an aesthetic space with its own particularities, at the limit between visibility and invisibility, excessive presence and absence. Nicholas of Cusa’s “Preface” to The Vision of God proposes an ethics of reading defined by admiratio (the consubstantiation of immediacy and distance) under the aegis of the all-seeing icon of God. Louis Marin’s reading of the episode of the Resurrection reveals that history and narrative arise from the conjunction of the excessive absence of the empty tomb of Jesus and the excessive presence announcing the resurrection of Christ. Sohravardî’s “Recital of the Crimson Angel” is a presentation of the space-between of revelation, between cognitio matutina and cognitio vespertina. Walter Benjamin’s “Agesilaus Santander” restores the connections between the exoteric and the esoteric under the patient gaze of “Angelus Novus”. Paul Valéry’s Eupalinos, ou l’Architecte explores the aesthetic of “real appearance” in the space-between the image and the perceiving eye. Poe and Malamud’s short stories reveal the affinities between poetic language and angelophany. Elie Wiesel’s Les portes de la forêt expands the apophatic itinerary from the self to the radically other in a hermeneutical gesture which has the angel as its initial and final guide. Finally, Rafael Alberti’s Sobre los ángeles shows that the aphaeretic function of poetic language is very similar to the apophatic treatment of the world as representation; in this last sense too, the angels are indispensible guides.

This dissertation is presented in two parts. It first identifies the shape and content of an ancient system of Christian thought predicated on the theology of the cross of Jesus Christ, and proposes the marks typifying its theologians. Over against the ensuing hermeneutic it next finds the project of twentieth century Swiss theologian Karl Barth to exhibit many of the defining characteristics of this system, and Barth himself to be fairly deemed a modern theologian of the cross. He crucially recovers, reshapes and reasserts the classical theologia crucis as a modern theological instrument, one answering enlightened theology’s self-glorifying accommodation to modernity with the living Word of the cross. The crucicentric system itself is found to comprise two major theological dimensions, epistemological and soteriological. Each of these comprises dialectically corresponding aspects connected with false and true creaturely glory. The cruciform Word (or theology) speaking through this system likewise moves in two directions. It declares negatively that any attempt by the creature to circumvent the cross so as to know about God directly, or to condition God's electing decision, is necessarily the attempt to know and act as God alone may know and act - an attempt therefore on the glory of God. It declares positively that in the crucified Christ God formally discloses the knowledge of God, and determines the creature for God. This knowledge and election are appropriated to the creature as, drawn into the cruciform environment, its attempt to glorify itself is negated and Christ's exalted humanity received in exchange. Thence it is lifted to participate in Christ's mind and in his glory, a process guided by the Holy Spirit and completed eschatologically. The database for this research includes selected primary materials in the Apostle Paul, Athanasius, a group of medieval mystical theologians, the reformer Martin Luther - particularly here his Heidelberg Disputation, and Karl Barth. It also pays attention to the recent secondary literature peripherally or more concertedly connecting itself to the theology of the cross, of whatever period. In this literature numerous suggestions for the content of the theology of the cross exist, a major methodological task in the current research being to bring these together systematically. To the extent that the inner structure of the system carrying the cruciform Word has not previously been made explicit, and Barth's crucicentric status not finally determined, in moving towards these achievements this dissertation breaks fresh ground. In the process a new test by which to decide the crucicentric status of any theological project is developed, and a further and crucicentric way of reading Barth proposed. / This dissertation identifies the shape, content, and marks of the theology of the cross, an ancient and still extant epistemological and soteriological system of Christian thought. Applying the resulting hermeneutic it then shows this system to be present with renewed vitality and future significance in the modern project of seminal Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968).

This dissertation is presented in two parts. It first identifies the shape and content of an ancient system of Christian thought predicated on the theology of the cross of Jesus Christ, and proposes the marks typifying its theologians. Over against the ensuing hermeneutic it next finds the project of twentieth century Swiss theologian Karl Barth to exhibit many of the defining characteristics of this system, and Barth himself to be fairly deemed a modern theologian of the cross. He crucially recovers, reshapes and reasserts the classical theologia crucis as a modern theological instrument, one answering enlightened theology���s self-glorifying accommodation to modernity with the living Word of the cross. The crucicentric system itself is found to comprise two major theological dimensions, epistemological and soteriological. Each of these comprises dialectically corresponding aspects connected with false and true creaturely glory. The cruciform Word (or theology) speaking through this system likewise moves in two directions. It declares negatively that any attempt by the creature to circumvent the cross so as to know about God directly, or to condition God's electing decision, is necessarily the attempt to know and act as God alone may know and act - an attempt therefore on the glory of God. It declares positively that in the crucified Christ God formally discloses the knowledge of God, and determines the creature for God. This knowledge and election are appropriated to the creature as, drawn into the cruciform environment, its attempt to glorify itself is negated and Christ's exalted humanity received in exchange. Thence it is lifted to participate in Christ's mind and in his glory, a process guided by the Holy Spirit and completed eschatologically. The database for this research includes selected primary materials in the Apostle Paul, Athanasius, a group of medieval mystical theologians, the reformer Martin Luther - particularly here his Heidelberg Disputation, and Karl Barth. It also pays attention to the recent secondary literature peripherally or more concertedly connecting itself to the theology of the cross, of whatever period. In this literature numerous suggestions for the content of the theology of the cross exist, a major methodological task in the current research being to bring these together systematically. To the extent that the inner structure of the system carrying the cruciform Word has not previously been made explicit, and Barth's crucicentric status not finally determined, in moving towards these achievements this dissertation breaks fresh ground. In the process a new test by which to decide the crucicentric status of any theological project is developed, and a further and crucicentric way of reading Barth proposed.